“We went 5-on-0 and he said, ‘Do you mind if I get in and play a little bit?’ So I said, ‘No, go out there and play and see how you feel,’” Collins said of Bynum Saturday, before the Sixers hosted Miami.

“It’s amazing. Just him standing out there, he distorted the whole practice. You get visions of what might have been. You throw the ball in the post and — first of all, we don’t do that, and when we did, it was five guys on him. It was like, ‘You shoot. No, you shoot. No, you shoot.’”

Bynum earlier in the week cited a continuing pain in his left knee, which he believed would keep him from practicing with the Sixers for another one to two weeks. That he jumped into an ongoing session with the team Friday was somewhat unexpected. The injured center had been relegated to post-practice workouts with trainers and assistant coaches, taking stationary shots without much lift.

While encouraged by Bynum’s willingness to jump right in, Collins said there’s plenty of space between Bynum’s first practice and his first game. He hasn’t played since May 2012, in a Western Conference semifinal series with the Los Angeles Lakers.

“How did Andrew look in practice? He looked like a guy who hadn’t played in nine months. That’s what he looked like,” Collins said. “He felt good to be out there. I don’t think there’s any bells or whistles set off now that he’s close to playing.”

With Bynum’s participation comes good news and bad news.

First, the good: “I think the good part was he said it was fun to be out there again,” Collins said of Bynum.

And, the bad? “The problem is we’ve got six games in nine days. There aren’t going to be practices. It’s not like he’s going to be able to get out and practice with us.”

Sixers general manager Tony DiLeo said “there was contact” in the portion of practice in which Bynum took part, another progression for a guy who’s been doing plenty of solitary workouts. But beyond that, Collins said he wasn’t getting into “semantics.”

“I don’t want to be the messenger,” Collins said. “I think you need to talk to the guy. They shoot messengers.”

Bynum was unavailable for comment.

•••Newly acquired guard Charles Jenkins, who wasn’t with the team Friday, arrived in time for Saturday’s game. Jenkins, wearing No. 31, took an open locker stall between Evan Turner and Jrue Holiday.

•••Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said Jrue Holiday, who he coached last weekend at the All-Star Game, played the part of a first-timer at the NBA’s showcase midseason game.

“We liked how curious he was,” Spoelstra said of Holiday. “We had an opportunity to spend two days with him. And he asked a lot of questions — about our guys, what their routine is, what they do on gamedays.

“When you watch the film, he’s been getting better every single year.”